adventdrabbles | Member Posts

Happy birthday

marcicat!!!!!!!! You are my favorite person in the world and I hope you have the best and sparkliest year yet ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

I was trying to think of a fic rec I don't know for sure you've already read, and it was not easy! I have likely not succeeded, but I thought the excerpt was funny enough to be worth it regardless.

♥ Pre-Existing Condition, by Helenish

“Isn’t this fraud?” Matt says. He’s inspecting the card again, who knows what’s so interesting about it, just John’s name at the top next to SUBSCRIBER NAME: and then a neat row of lines at the bottom under DEPENDENTS: SPOUSE Farrell M; CHILD McLane L; CHILD McLane J.

“Oh, right, I forgot what a law-abiding citizen you were,“ John begins, “You can do whatever you want because you’re a fucking anarchist—“

“—Democrat, but okay—“

“but god forbid I should ever—“ the argument clicking along down the old familiar track—except Matt laughs.

“Fine, man, you got me. I only have one leg. What do you want for dinner?”

stonepicnicking_okapi

Thank you to

thatjustwontbreak for suggesting Buddy Wakefield. I confess spoken word poetry is not an area I know a lot about but that should change :)

Watch on YouTube

themightyflynn

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delphi

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ride_4ever

I'm putting together a program at the public library where I work as an Acquisitions and Collection Management Librarian. It's a program about books that have been challenged or banned in the recent onslaught against the freedom to read in the U.S. Some of the reasons...I can't even! I don't know whether to engage in bitter laughter or to just plain cry...or both...yeah, both.

Just a few moments ago I encountered this one about a book I read recently: An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz has been banned in some parts of the U.S. because Dunbar-Ortiz puts Indigenous Native Americans at the center of her telling of U.S. history "causing the book to gain detractors who prefer that history be told from the colonizer perspective". To paraphrase Shakespeare in Hamlet: "If all history books were to be judged on preferred perspective 'who should scape whipping'."

Current Mood: I can't even.
Current Location: near the lake they call Michigan

veronyxk84

Welcome to “AO Special”, another series of recurring posts with my favorite highlights from the slam “down under”.

Here is a quick recap for Day 4 & Day 5 of the Australian Open 2026 for our Italian players. Find Day 3 recap HERE.

Featured Today:

Day 4: Paolini to round 3!
Day 5: Musetti, Darderi, Sinner to round 3; Maestrelli and Sonego out
Up Next: Paolini vs Jovic + Errani/Vavassori

( AO Special #3 )

See you in a couple of days with the next AO Special! 🎾

Current Mood: ecstatic

enchanted_jae

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Current Mood: full
Current Music: Red Wings at Maple Leafs

xinger

图片描述：一个非乐高积木的瀑布，旁边有魏无羡迷你任务和蓝忘机站在一起。魏无羡有自己的笛子，蓝忘机有自己个古琴。身边有三只兔子，身后还有一道彩虹。

♥ 为了《像金鱼一样吧》的挑战，第三周，在

beagoldfish的社群里。

starandrea

Speaking of AI, I just gave google translate an image description to spellcheck, and it added a definition of "guqin" to the English translation of my Chinese alt/title text.

Original Chinese: 一个非乐高积木的瀑布，旁边有魏无羡迷你任务和蓝忘机站在一起。魏无羡有他的笛子，蓝忘机有他个古琴。

Google Translate's English: A waterfall made of non-Lego bricks, with mini-figures of Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji standing next to it. Wei Wuxian has his flute, and Lan Wangji has his guqin (a Chinese zither).

I deleted "guqin" to see what would happen and no lie, google translate added "(the sentence ends abruptly)".

(Will it be years or months, I wonder, before this post will sound hilariously dated?)

(...Or weeks?)

starandrea

Our work computers periodically become outdated and are replaced, which is greatly appreciated and less disruptive with every iteration, as cloud backups and connectivity proliferate. In the spring of 2020, I went home with two six-year-old laptops.

(In defense of my department, they had been encouraging me to upgrade for at least a year, and I resisted because the technology worked fine. I didn't see a need for new if old was doing the job.)

By fall one computer was no longer compatible with company security, and IT sent me a new one that combined everything I needed from both old computers. But we were in the process of moving from one campus to another (a process hugely extended by the pandemic) so the old computers went nowhere.

My point is that when IT upgraded my computer again this week, and they invited me (now a remote worker) to campus to pick up the new one, I brought them three old ones in trade and a whole lot of memories.

Even after my previous department became remote in 2020, we were required to attend a variety of in-person events from client meetings to company all-staffs. In the depths of my three laptop bags I found parking receipts, boarding passes, Chinese readers and snacks, along with masks - so many masks - hand sanitizer, and a note from a deceased coworker about the name of one of my laptops.

It's hard to believe it's been six years. It's also strange to me personally that the time between going home and starting my current job - four entire years - has largely disappeared from daily recall. I remember working with my previous department, on-site, for 18 years. And I remember working with my current department, remotely, for the last two.

Everything in between: the years between 2020 to 2024, from going remote to moving house to saying goodbye to Mimi, all still exists in my memory, but it's largely unmoored from the rest of the timeline. It's neither "now" nor "then," but some secret third option that my brain initially skips over when looking back, somehow assigning those years to a parallel life track rather than a sequential one.

I wonder if it will settle into place as life goes on, if life goes on (thanks body, I appreciate you), or if it will remain disconnected, like the semester I spent teaching at a residential school during the fall of 2001.

Memory is so interesting. I try to let experiences change me in the moment as much as possible and desirable, so I get more out of them than thinking of (or forgetting) them later.

And being kind, of course. The most important connection to any experience.

“I shall pass this way but once; any good that I can do or any kindness I can show to any human being; let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”

~Etienne de Grellet,
Quaker missionary

dani_meows

I hate sensitive skin so much. At any moment a skin product that didn't irritate me might irritate it. Rash up... Need a bandaid? Despite using sensitive skin bandaids and being extra careful peeling it off not only is the skin around it irritated but some of it is torn.

I'm having a flare up of a chronic skin issue too. So I keep having to lay down and have Ian regauze and tape the area so it doesn't tear my skin.

I am extra frustrated today because last night I couldn't get comfortable and ended up aggravating the flare up by scratching.

I also feel like I do right before my period.

Haven't had my period in a few months, am perimenopausal... But maybe she's coming or maybe my hormones are a mess. I do have polycystic ovarian syndrome.

Jasper cat is still slightly wobbly from his pain medicine. Last night he seemed like he might be in pain from his arthritis and the cold. He seems to be feeling better and is currently shouting at my husband. Because he wants cuddles and food but Ian is still at the computer doing engineering things.

This post is super whiny but then again when I'm in pain my inner 5 year old is out. And she wants cookies.

Current Mood: moody
Crossposts: https://dani-meows.insanejournal.com/387591.html

mrs_sweetpeach

( Click here for Week #03 )

Current Mood: complacent
Current Location: My home office
Crossposts: https://mrs-sweetpeach.insanejournal.com/803002.html

stonepicnicking_okapi

Wednesday's word is...

...quiddity.

1. whatever makes something the type that it is: essence
2. a: trifling point, quibble
2. b: crotchet, eccentricity

---

I remember this word from Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers. This is such an excellent speech by Lord Peter. The audiobook version of this resides in my head.

“Well, I’m glad the little man has so much of an alibi,” said Lord Peter, “though if you’re only glueing your faith to cadaveric lividity, rigidity, and all the other quiddities, you must be prepared to have some sceptical beast of a prosecuting counsel walk slap-bang through the medical evidence. Remember Impey Biggs defending in that Chelsea tea-shop affair? Six bloomin’ medicos contradictin’ each other in the box, an’ old Impey elocutin’ abnormal cases from Glaister and Dixon Mann till the eyes of the jury reeled in their heads! ‘Are you prepared to swear, Dr. Thingumtight, that the onset of rigor mortis indicates the hour of death without the possibility of error?’ ‘So far as my experience goes, in the majority of cases,’ says the doctor, all stiff. ‘Ah!’ says Biggs, ‘but this is a Court of Justice, Doctor, not a Parliamentary election. We can’t get on without a minority report. The law, Dr. Thingumtight, respects the rights of the minority, alive or dead.’ Some ass laughs, and old Biggs sticks his chest out and gets impressive. ‘Gentlemen, this is no laughing matter. My client—an upright and honourable gentleman—is being tried for his life—for his life, gentlemen—and it is the business of the prosecution to show his guilt—if they can—without a shadow of doubt. Now, Dr. Thingumtight, I ask you again, can you solemnly swear, without the least shadow of doubt,—probable, possible shadow of doubt—that this unhappy woman met her death neither sooner nor later than Thursday evening? A probable opinion? Gentlemen, we are not Jesuits, we are straightforward Englishmen. You cannot ask a British-born jury to convict any man on the authority of a probable opinion.’ Hum of applause.”

“Biggs’s man was guilty all the same,” said Parker.

“Of course he was. But he was acquitted all the same, an’ what you’ve just said is libel.”

[of course what Parker has just said is slander not libel]

themightyflynn

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veronyxk84

Title: Mismatched
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Author:

veronyxk84
Characters/Pairing: Spike, Giles
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: some coarse language
Word count: 200 (Google Docs)
Spoilers/Setting: Set in S4, between eps. 4x09 “Something Blue” and 4x10 “Hush”.
Summary: Spike pranks Giles out of boredom.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction created for fun and no profit has been made. All rights belong to the respective owners.

Challenge: #503 - Sock by

fan_flashworks

—
( READ: Mismatched/Double drabble )

Current Mood: amused

deird1

I've got a few more drabbles, to match the ones I did earlier.

( seven new drabbles )

delphi

✓

kingstoken's 2026 Book Bingo: eBook/Audiobook

That's a Great Question, I'd Love to Tell You is a 2025 memoir by comedian/musician/online personality Elyse Myers. It's a collection of essays, free verse poetry, and lists that take a humorous but heartfelt look at formative and vulnerable moments in her life, with a retrospective understanding of the anxiety and undiagnosed neurodivergence that often shaped them.

Stories include a childhood fixation on a Magic 8 Ball, overthinking and missing the obvious during a teenage game of Seven Minutes in Heaven, college panic attacks, Parisian dates gone awry, beach encounters gone sour, and conquering the mysteries of gravel roads. Anyone familiar with Elyse Myers' work online knows she has a way of telling a story and getting a laugh while also not being afraid to be earnest. If you haven't seen her videos before, you can check her out on TikTok or on Youtube.

I don't listen to a ton of audiobooks, my main exception being memoirs that are read by their authors. That usually works out for me, but in this case I really wish I'd gone with the print book for three reasons:

1) It turns out the print edition is full of little illustrations and creative formatting that brings a lot to some of the pieces.

2) One of the things I enjoy about Myers is her more freeform and sometimes frenetic delivery, but this was a more sedate and traditional audiobook performance.

3) Related to #2, several stories triggered some secondhand embarrassment for me and having to listen to that be slowly relayed instead of being able to read faster during those was rough.

( An Excerpt )

starandrea

My workplace requires the use of LLM as AI, so I pay particular attention to how it comes up in my hobbies. Every day is a chance to learn more than I knew before.

Will AI replace Chinese teachers | Chinese podcast #184, by Dashu Mandarin 大叔中文

Ben: I don't think I'll be replaced by AI; I'll be replaced by someone who knows how to use AI.
Richard: You'll be replaced by PeiPei.
PeiPei: Follow me!
Richard: If you can't beat them, join them, right?

Ben: 我是觉得呃我不会被AI取代但是我会被会AI的。
Richard: 你会被珮珮取代。
PeiPei: 跟着我干吧！
Richard: 对打不过就加入是吧？